The Radical Secret

The Divine names that we shall mention in this
letter are “Hashem” and “Elokim.” As we
discussed, Hashem expresses the Divine attribute
of compassion, which is why we often refer to
Hashem in our series as, “the Compassionate
One.” Elokim expresses the Divine attribute of
justice, which is why we often refer to Elokim
as, “the Just One.”

Dear Friends,

The Torah - the Teaching of the Compassionate
One - was given on Shabbos, the sacred Seventh
Day. Before the Torah was given, the People of
Israel made a covenant with the Compassionate
One to fulfill the Torah and its path of mitzvos
- sacred deeds which enable us to serve and
protect the Divine creation. They therefore
proclaimed in unison, “All that Hashem has
spoken, we will do, and we will hear!” (Exodus
24:7)

The Talmud records the following teaching in the
name of Rabbi Elazar: At the time when Israel
said, “We will do” before they said, “We will
hear,” the Heavenly voice went forth and said of
them, “Who revealed to My children this secret
that is used by the angels of service?” For the
angels are ready to “do” before they “hear”, as
it is written (Psalm 103:20), “Bless Hashem, O
His angels, the mighty of strength who do
His bidding, to hear the voice of His
word.” (Shabbos 88a)

The Talmud describes how a heretic ridiculed the
People of Israel for first saying, “We will do,”
before they said, “We will hear.” The heretic
argued that they first should have listened to
the contents of the Torah before deciding to do
the bidding of the Compassionate One (ibid). A
person does not, however, need to be a heretic
in order to wonder why our people first said,
“We will do” before hearing the Divine
instructions. In fact, doesn't one first have to
hear the instructions for an assignment before
one can fulfill the assignment? Why, then, did
we first express our readiness to “do” before we
heard what needed to be done?

The human being was created to serve the Divine
creation, as it is written, “Hashem Elokim took
the human being and placed him in the Garden of
Eden l'avdah ul'shamrah - to serve it and
to guard it” (Genesis 2:15). A spiritually
enlightened human being is therefore aware that
his whole purpose in life is to serve the
Creator through serving and protecting the
Divine creation. Such a person says to the
Creator, “I am already willing to fulfill the
altruistic purpose for which You created me, and
I am therefore ready to hear Your instructions.”

As we mentioned, our sages refer to this
altruistic attitude as the “secret” that is used
by the angels of service. The Hebrew word for
“angel” is malach - a word which also
means “a messenger.” An angel is a “messenger of
service” - a heavenly being that was created to
fulfill a specific purpose of the Creator. These
heavenly messengers have only one will: to be of
service to their Creator. They are therefore
ready to fulfill the Divine purpose “before”
they hear the Divine instructions, and this
readiness to serve is the secret of how they
become “the mighty of strength who do His
bidding, to hear the voice of His word.” At
Mount Sinai, we discovered this secret, and we
too became messengers of service! We freely
chose to become like the angels, and we
proclaimed in unison, “We will do and we will
hear.” We are already willing to fulfill the
altruistic purpose for which you created us, and
we are ready to hear Your instructions.

May the Compassionate and Just One help all of
us to rediscover the radical secret of the
angels.